Semana Santa and pilgrim only albergues

[Sunopo]

Hi, I ‘ll be walking camino Mozarabe March/April 2023 and expect to be in the area of Hinojosa del Duque during Semana Santa. There is usually an albergue municipal exclusively for pilgrims in the towns of this area but can anyone advise me whether these albergues remain available for pilgrims only during this period or should I expect to have difficulty finding accommodation and therefore best to book private accommodation?
what is your experience, on this or any other camino regarding the municipal albuergues and Semana Santa?
thanks.

 

[Flog]

I have only ever seen municipal albergues given over to firemen on the invierno and to railway construction workers on the VDLP, but never on any camino to visiting tourists. Others might have more experience with this though..

 

[george.g]

I’ve just returned home from my Mozarabe/VdeLP Camino, I arrived at the municipal albergue at Aljucen to find that one of the dorms was being occupied by workers from a construction company, as it happens I was the only pilgrim that day so no problem.
In ‘19 I and a Spanish pilgrim arrived at Monterrubio only to find that the albergue occupied by a tour group, the Spanish guy played hell at the town hall but it seems that because it was owned by the municipality they could do what they liked with the towns property, and I guess you couldn’t argue. The point being “you never know” and generally you can’t reserve places at municiple albergue.
So my advice is if you like a degree of certainty I would be tempted to book.
Although I guess you will get reply’s from people who have been on Camino during Easter and had no problems.
Regards
George

 

[C clearly]

If there is an albergue in the town, I would expect it to be available during Semana Santa just as for other periods. However, some of them are small and could still fill up, and I am not certain that all of them are strictly for pilgrims.

I was passing through Cordoba on a fiesta weekend in May and there was virtually nothing available for a couple of towns around.

I would make the assumption that it could be somewhat difficult to find accommodation in any significant town on the Wed-Sun of Semana Santa. That doesn't mean it is impossible, just somewhat difficult, so you need to decide what approach you prefer!

 

[Sunopo]

Thank you and it is as I suspected, a bit of an unknown in advance. Perhaps I’ll take my thermarest inflatable mattress with me as a backup.

 

[Mito]

I ended up in Astorga during Semana Santa and the main municipal albergue was business as usual. I think it's highly unpredictable.